Do You See Who I See?
by hatondog
Summary: An epilogue for the "Do You See What I See" holiday ep, accounting for those who were MIA on the air.  Last chapter is up...and to all a good night.
1. Chapter 1

Do You See Who I See? (Chapter 1)

**A/N: Fixing the thing that bothered me about the "Do You See What I See?" holiday ep. Because, really, if you can't fix what you didn't like about an aired storyline, what is fan fiction for? **

**Note that the episode ignored the Astraeus launch, so I have too. I'm also ignoring the wedding rings worn by Carter and Allison in the ep—I think that little development is better left to others to write about.**

**Don't own Eureka, wouldn't have cancelled it, etc….and Happy Holidays to you all.**

Jo dropped to her knees and crouched behind a couch. Her prey was perched on its cushions. Both were utterly absorbed in waiting for the other to make a move. All her instincts for strategy humming, Jo tensed then sprang. She grabbed as she rose, fingers just capturing the end of a shirt as her prey collapsed-into giggles.

"Gotcha!" crowed Jo as she hoisted Jenna into the air. The little girl hooted in delight.

Laughing, Allison stepped forward. "OK, my girl. It is time for you to go to bed, or Santa may not come tonight." Jo responded in a stage whisper that reached across the room. "Oh, boy. I don't know about you, Jenna, but I am _definitely_ getting to sleep on time tonight. You don't mess with Santa and his schedule!"

Jenna's eyes widened. She seemed to be considering her options as she looked longingly at the cookies, cocoa and brightly wrapped presents strewn around the room. The other adults gathered—Carter, Henry, Fargo and Vincent—were all nodding solemnly. Zoe and Kevin were headed for the stairs in mock panic.

"We're outta here!" Kevin yelled. "Yeah, you don't mess with Santa—he's even tougher than my _dad_!" called Zoe. As they disappeared from sight, Jenna slumped with resignation. It had been a magical Christmas Eve, in more ways than she knew. But even two year olds learn that all good things must come to an end. Besides, she was powerfully curious about this Santa person and the bag of gifts that was supposed to arrive by morning if she fell asleep tonight.

With a sigh that turned into a yawn, Jenna reached for her mother's arms. As Allison and Carter took her up to her room, she waved goodbye to Jo, who was surprised at the lump that formed in her throat.

Jo accepted a fresh mug of eggnog from Vincent, promising herself that it would be her last before heading home to her own bed. It had been a long day, and the down comforter awaiting in her newly reconstructed home was calling.

Fargo appeared at her elbow, still carrying the ninja stick that had somehow survived his transformation from animation to flesh and blood earlier that evening. He waggled it at her, expression slightly unfocused. The concentration of rum in Vincent's eggnog had risen as the night wore on and Fargo passed his limit at least a cup before.

"Did you see us, Jo? Did you?" The ninja stick made a pass over a nearby coffee table, barely missing a stack of cookies. "It was _so cool._ Henry and I were totally kick ass—that Sninja didn't stand a chance." At Jo's raised eyebrows, he quickly amended his statement. "Of course, your bomb and Carter's driving really did the trick, but did you _see _me?" Jo snatched the stick from him as its trajectory widened.

"I saw," she said. "You _were_ totally kick-ass."

"Yeah," he answered, a satisfied smile spreading across Fargo's face. Suddenly, his smile faded and he dropped to the couch with a moan.

"Fargo?" asked Jo, somewhat alarmed. She sat next to him, scanning his face for signs of imminent nausea.

"I just wish Holly could have seen it, you know?" he asked mournfully. "It'd be so nice for once for a girl to see me when I become a lean, mean fighting machine."

"For once?" snorted Jo. "Do you get turned into a cartoon character often? Because I really hadn't noticed."

"No, no…it's never happened before. And now it never will again…" His voice tipped from mournful to maudlin.

"But if Holly had seen you fight the Sninja, she would have also seen you as a bobblehead. And you wouldn't want that would you?" Jo spoke with false perkiness, as though she was talking to a toddler on the verge of a nasty tantrum.

The night had officially become surreal. It was hard to say which was more absurd—that she'd actually been turned into a bluebird-wielding princess for a time, or that she was now comparing the virtues of having one's significant other see you as an anime warrior or a bobblehead. Maybe she would wake up and find this day had all been a dream.

Fargo gasped. "That's right! Oh, man. That would have been bad—I looked like a spring-powered Pinnochio." He nodded vigorously, unconsciously mimicking his earlier animated condition. "Thanks, Jo. I guess I should be happy that Holly is safely away visiting her family." He leaned back against the couch, closing his eyes.

Only in Eureka would a dream be the least plausible explanation for its residents becoming pen and clay caricatures of themselves for a day. Shaking her head, Jo started to stand. Fargo's hand shot out to grab her arm, holding her in place.

"Jo," Fargo said, his speech slightly slurred. "Why are you here?"

"It's Carter and Allison's Christmas party, Fargo. Why wouldn't I be here?"

"But you should be in Worcher-, I mean Woostser, no…" Fargo closed his eyes for a second, but the word he was looking for had escaped him. "Some town outside of Boston."

Jo peered at him, wondering exactly how much he'd had to drink. "Why would I be in Boston?" she asked patiently.

"Zane. I mean, _with _Zane. At his mom's house. For Christmas."

Jo stiffened. She felt her neck tense and the vague beginnings of a hangover come on.

"Worcester! That's the town," Fargo blurted out.

"Zane didn't ask me to go with him," Jo said flatly. "It's the first time he's been able to go home for Christmas…" She looked around to make sure that Vincent was out of earshot. "In this timeline. Before, he could go home sometimes if I went with him." Her gaze fixed on the Christmas tree. "It wasn't always comfortable, having to be his guard and girlfriend, but we didn't talk about it. Now, with the pardon, he can go on his own. So he did."

Her attention turned back to Fargo, whose head was now swinging from side to side. He was starting to look a little green.

"No, no, no," he chanted. "Zane had plane tickets. One for him, one for you. I saw them—he was going to give yours to you this morning." Fargo swung his hand through the air. "Sort of a Christmas present, a big romantic gesture kind of thing."

Jo gave a bark of laughter, but didn't smile. "Zane? Zane doesn't do romantic gestures, big or otherwise. Besides, we don't…we've never gone on a trip together. In this time, anyway. You must be mistaken." She looked away and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Or he changed his mind."

Her cell phone rang. The sharp ringing stopped conversations around the room.

"Lupo," Jo said in her normal tone of voice. "What? Where were they?" Her eyebrows slammed together and she stood. "Put them in my holding cell until I can get there." She paused, listening. "Yes, I _know _they're made out of clay—just do it!"

Exasperated, she turned to Henry. "One of my crew just found two botanists wandering around GD. Apparently, they were having some kind of rendezvous on level Q after the animation took effect and they're still cartoons. How is that possible?"

Henry looked thoughtfully at her for a few moments before speaking. "Where were they on level Q?" he asked.

"In one of the isolation chambers," Jo said. "When I get ahold of those two…" She was prepared to continue, but Henry's face had lit up with excitement. He had the answer, as usual.

Carter, Allison, Zoe and Kevin paused at the bottom of the stairs to listen. Jenna had finally fallen asleep, but apparently all else wasn't yet well in their corner of the world.

"Those chambers are fully shielded—no sound or any other kind of energy wave can pass through their walls. When we reversed the polarity on the generator, they must not have been exposed to the energy pulse. Ergo, they're still cartoons." Henry's excitement ebbed. "Which means that we have to get up to the generator and produce another pulse, or those two could stay animated forever."

The mood in the room dimmed. No one relished the thought of another trip up the mountain adjacent the town, especially not late on Christmas Eve. Before anyone could speak, Jo's phone rang again.

"Now what?" She listened for a moment. "It was where? Are you sure? No, I'm sorry, I'm not questioning your eyesight. It's just…" She sighed. "Take it to GD. I'll meet you there."

Looking around the room, she explained the call. "That was another member of my crew. She was driving home when she nearly hit a dog. A _cartoon _dog. After it ran out of MY house."

"Your house is…?" Carter asked questioningly. Jo nodded. "Shielded. After it was destroyed twice, I put in extra protections. Shielding was one of them."

"How did a dog get in your house?" Kevin wondered out loud.

"No idea. But that's one more candidate for the pulse." Jo started toward the door. "I'm going to GD. I'll have my crew sweep the town to see if we have any more refugees from the Cartoon Network running around."

Henry looked to Allison. "You stay here—Jack and I can handle getting the generator turned on."

Carter groaned, but nodded. "Yeah, no need for us all to go. You stay with the kids and watch for Santa." With a smile, he kissed her lightly before following Jo and Henry. They heard the sound of Fargo's gentle snores as SARAH closed the door behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

Do You See Who I See (Chapter 2)

Jo pulled her hair back into its customary ponytail as she made her way through the GD rotunda toward her office. With the lights turned off and its holiday decorations in shadow, the space felt abandoned. Certainly not the place where Jo hoped to be just a few hours before Christmas morning.

A member of her security detail met her at the office door. Silently, the woman gestured to the two clay figures huddled inside Jo's holding cell. One female and the other male, both were draped in a real blanket. Their bare, doughy legs and arms protruded from its edges.

Jo stared for a few seconds then turned to the guard. "Why are they under the blanket…are they _naked_?" she asked.

The guard nodded, eyes wide. "We found them that way. I can only guess at what they were doing in the isolation chamber." She shook her head at Jo's raised eyebrows. "Well, I know what they probably meant to do, but the thing is…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "They don't have all their, um, _parts._"

Jo choked, and both women struggled against rising giggles. Jo turned to the pair in the cell, trying to look stern.

"We're working on a way to get you back to normal." Unable to resist, she added, "Of course, this is a pretty unprecedented event. Can't be sure if _everything_ will get restored."

In a time-tested cartoon response to bad news, the prisoners' eyes grew enormous, nearly drawfing their heads. Self-control slipping, Jo began laughing until she was interrupted by a loud bark.

"That's the dog I found. Well, actually, who found me—it nearly ran under the wheels of my car," the guard explained.

Looking toward her desk, Jo saw the outline of a large dog sitting in the shadows. "Why isn't it in the holding cell?" she asked.

"It wouldn't go. It seemed perfectly happy to get in my car and follow me into your office, but when I tried to get it into the cell, it growled." The guard frowned. "That's a big dog. Even though it's not real, I wasn't sure what kind of damage it could do. So I let it stay under your desk."

"You said it came out of my house?" Jo asked.

The woman nodded. "Right through the window. Scared the heck out of me, I don't mind saying. It ran straight for my car, barking its head off, but slipped on the snow. I stopped just in time. He—or she, I couldn't get close enough to tell—was bleeding a little when we got here, probably from the glass."

Just then, Jo saw what looked like drawings of red droplets on her office floor, leading to her desk.

"I'm just so glad I didn't hit it," the guard continued. "That would have been awful. Besides, it's a beautiful dog. A husky, I think, one of the ones with the curly tail and blue eyes."

With a quiet woof, the dog limped out from the shadows. For a moment, it paused, seeming to look directly at Jo. Then it trotted toward her and jumped up, putting its mangled paws on her shoulders.

Jo froze. It was a husky, and a big one. Standing on its hind feet, its head was above hers. It was drawn like a Rankin Bass cartoon—all bold black outlines and vivid colors—but its weight felt real.

The guard pulled her weapon, but Jo told her to drop it when the hackles rose on the dog's neck. It didn't move from its position, though, instead staring into her eyes. With its very pale blue ones.

"Zane?" breathed Jo incredulously.

The dog's tail began to wag furiously. He licked Jo's face then dropped to the floor, panting with what looked like a wide grin.

"That's Zane Donovan?" squeaked the guard. Jo shrugged. "I think so," she answered. "But if it is, he should be able to talk. The polar bear, I mean Taggart, could talk when he was animated."

At the mention of Taggart's name, the dog's grin vanished. He began making not-quite-a-growl grumbling noises.

"Stop that," said Jo absently to him, running her hand over her forehead. "I need something only Zane would know."

The dog looked at her levelly for several seconds, then limped back to the desk. As Jo and the guard watched, he nosed Jo's center desk drawer open. He snatched something from it in his teeth, then trotted back to Jo, dropping it at her feet.

It was a long, gold chain. One from which a ring that Zane's grandmother had given him once hung.

Jo slowly lowered herself to her knees and picked up the chain. Running it through her fingers, she looked at the dog and nodded.

"It's Zane," she said softly. She reached for one of his injured paws. "What happened to you?"

He whimpered. She couldn't tell whether it was from pain or frustration, but it was clear that he didn't have any other way of talking to her. Releasing his paw, Jo stroked her hand over the ebony and white fur covering Zane's back, noting the matted mud and gravel from where he'd slid across the road. He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch.

"We need to get you changed back so Allison can take care of these injuries," Jo said decisively. Turning to the guard, she asked "Do you have anything I could use as a leash?"

Zane yelped and backed away, chest rumbling. Jo grinned. "Sorry, couldn't help myself." He looked as disgruntled as a dog could, then stomped toward the door, head raised high. Grinning, Jo followed. "I said I was sorry!" Calling back to the guard, she said "Take the pottery people over to Café Diem. We'll have the reversal pulse ready to go over there shortly."

Zane was sitting at the elevator when Jo caught up to him. She winced when she saw that he'd left small blotches of cartoon blood at spots along the floor. Digging in her pockets, she came up with a pair of socks, small pink ones that belonged to Jenna.

"You're bleeding. Let me look at your paws, er, feet. Hands?" she asked uncertainly. The protocol for addressing a boyfriend turned canine wasn't clear. Zane turned to her then froze when he saw the pink fabric dangling from her fingers. He backed away, shaking his head.

"Oh, stop it. You're just going to hurt yourself walking around without some kind of cover over those cuts. Besides, it's freezing outside. And what do you care what you look like? You're a _dog,_" Jo reasoned. Zane didn't move. Jo dropped to her knees and held her arms out to him. "Come here," she said softly.

After a moment, he walked to her. She lifted a front paw and examined it closely.

Bits of glass, gravel and mud were scattered around the pads and a couple of claws were broken off. Using the outside of the sock, she gently wiped the debris away and slid the sock onto the paw. Zane stared fixedly at the wall until she'd completed the process for his other front paw.

"Are your back paws—um, feet hurt too?" He shook his head then rested it on her shoulder. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she buried her face briefly in his thick fur. "I don't know why you're here, but I'm glad to see you," she whispered. She leaned back and smiled. "Even if you do smell like wet dog." Zane barked sharply then turned, deliberately sliding his muddy fur along her pants legs. "You jackass," Jo laughed.

As they rode down the elevator, Jo unconsciously ruffled Zane's ears until the sweep of his tail across the floor caught her attention. Looking down, she saw him staring up at her with a crooked, doggy grin. She pulled her hand away. "I know what you're thinking, and I _can__so_ keep my hands off you." He danced around her, barking wildly. Jo frowned in mock indignation. "Watch it," she said. "We can get you neutered, you know."

With a sharp yip, Zane stopped so suddenly he lost his balance and crashed into the elevator wall. Standing, he glared at her, the very picture of wounded dignity. After that, he didn't utter another sound until they were on the road in Jo's car.

As they drove to Main Street, Jo explained the day's events and how reversing the flow of energy from the mountaintop generator had restored most of the town's residents to their usual corporeal state. "Henry and Carter are setting it up for another pulse. Hopefully, that will get you and the other cartoon stragglers back to normal too." She glanced at the back seat in her rear view mirror. Zane was stretched out, head on paws.

"Then you can tell me what you're still doing here, and why you were in my house," she said. No response. She cleared her throat. "Fargo said you had tickets to see your mom for the holiday. As in tickets, plural. What-". Before she could finish, Zane's head popped up. He was barking furiously, scrambling to squeeze between the front seats.

"Zane! What the hell—I can't drive with you on top of me!" He made it through the gap, sliding forward into the dashboard when Jo hit the brakes. As soon as the car stopped moving, he banged his shoulder hard against the handle and leapt out. Jo followed, running after him toward where Carter, Henry and Fargo stood around the hapless botanists from GD, who were now attired in long cartoon parkas.

Zane barreled past them. "Zane!" Jo called as she came abreast of the men. Eyebrows raised, Henry asked, "That's Zane?" Carter chimed in. "What is that on his _feet_?"

Jo took a deep breath and shouted, "Zane, SIT!" The three men sucked in a breath. Zane slid to a halt, shooting Jo a look of utter disbelief before running on. Fargo looked at her, mouth open and eyes wide. "You told him to _sit_," he said in wonder. "He is never going to let you live that down."

Before Jo could answer, they heard Vincent yelling. Cups of cocoa fell from his hands as he ran from Café Diem. "It was in my freezer! Run for your lives!" Behind him, a partially melted Sninja stomped out the café's front door. Its head spun toward the people gathered on the street and it lumbered in their direction, stick hands raised.

Zane jumped, hitting the Sninja dead on at its chest. He passed into its snowy whiteness until only his tail and hind legs could be seen. With a roar, the Sninja ran forward then tripped. It gained speed as it rolled, Zane now completely out of sight.

Carter was yelling into his PDA. "Andy, turn on the generator. Turn it on, NOW!" Nothing happened for several long seconds, then a glowing wave of color crashed onto Main Street. It rippled and flowed toward the still rolling Sninja, which was now inches away from Carter's jeep. The wave collided with the Sninja just as the latter collided with the jeep, exploding into a cloud of snowflakes and ice.

When the wave and cloud dissipated, the Sninja was gone.

And so was Zane.

**A/N: Inspired by a tweet from Niall saying he'd have wanted to be animated as a husky if he'd been in the holiday ep.**


	3. Chapter 3

Do You See Who I See (Chapter 3)

**A/N: Had to get this finished and out of my head before the holiday…**

For a moment after the Sninja exploded, the only sound was the tinkling of glass from the windows of the battered Jeep. Jo was the first to react, running to the spot only the Sninja's stick arms marked where it and Zane had fallen. He wasn't there.

"Try the Tool Shed!" Fargo shouted, pointing to the open door of a hardware store across from the Jeep. The group moved as one into the building. Snow was scattered across the entrance floor. Beyond it were muddy footprints which vanished behind rows of shelving.

"Zane, are you in here?" called Jo into the dark room. A squeak caught her attention. Turning, she saw the female botanist staring behind the first row of shelves, mouth open. She seemed frozen to the spot, unable to speak.

Pulling their weapons, Jo and Carter stepped forward. Jo's eyes were on the footprints that trailed off into the gloom while Carter's height allowed him a view over her head. So he was the first to see what the woman had found so captivating.

His feeble effort not to laugh failed. At the sound, the others pressed forward. Their appearance did nothing to improve the mood of the man before them.

Zane glared at the group and shifted the snow shovel he was holding to a more strategic position. It didn't help much to hide the fact that he was naked, except for a few patches of snow clinging to his hair and a streak of mud along his side. Everyone except the botanists and Jo stepped back quickly. Their concern wasn't so much for Zane's modesty—most doubted he had any. But dealing with an angry Zane wasn't anyone's idea of a peaceful Christmas Eve.

Grabbing a sleeping bag from a shelf, Jo stepped forward, only to find her way blocked. The female botanist continued to stare at Zane, eyes glazed. Her companion stomped away, snorting in disgust. Any hope he'd had of ending the evening on a romantic note had clearly been dashed by his partner's sight of greener pastures.

Jo cleared her throat loudly. With a jerk, the woman came to, eyes reluctantly moving toward the sound before she finally scuttled away.

Shaking her head, Jo walked to Zane and handed him the bag. As he wrapped it around himself, she saw he was shivering and stepped inside the fabric, pressing against him. They stood for a moment until both became a little too warm for their surroundings.

"Break it up back there!" yelled Carter from the front of the store. "Time's ticking. Stockings to stuff, presents to open."

Grinning, Zane pulled back. "Sounds like Santa's about to put you on the naughty list," he said, waggling his eyebrows. "You wish," Jo fired back. "Besides, we have a lot of talking to do—starting with why you were in my house today."

"Lead the way and all will be revealed," Zane said, waving his hand toward the door. Jo bit her lip at the sight of his hand, which was covered in deep scratches and dirt.

"We've got to get this cleaned up," she said softly, turning his hand in hers. Tracing one of the cuts, she added, "I guess this wasn't all just a dream."

"More like a nightmare," muttered Zane as he followed her onto the street. "I haven't gotten around on all fours since I was 6 months old, and I don't intend to ever do it again."

Henry, Fargo and Vincent waved as they drove away. Henry was off to pick up Grace and her young niece from the airport so they could welcome Santa, Eureka-style. Fargo and Vincent each headed home for a well-deserved sleep. The former hoped to shake off a hangover, the latter needed to rest up for the next day's Christmas dinner marathon at Café Diem.

Carter was waiting for them by Jo's car, smiling broadly. "You two ok? Need anything before I go? Holiday cheer? Bag of dog food?"

"Funny, Carter," growled Zane. "What kind of cartoon were you—Gumby? Tall, skinny, never says anything-".

"That's enough," Jo broke in. She pushed Zane to her car and turned to give Carter a quick hug. "Thank you for the party and the help. I hope it's not too late for you and Allison to have the kind of holiday you wanted for the kids."

"Nah," he answered. "This has already _definitely _been a Christmas none of us will forget." He nodded his head toward Zane. "When he warms up and gets human again, tell him thanks too. It took guts to jump into that thing."

"Or stupidity," said Jo. But she said it with a smile.

Later, Zane stared at his reflection in his bathroom mirror. Other than the cuts on his hands and a nasty bruise on his hip from his slide across the road, he'd survived life as a canine fairly well. What hadn't survived the day was his confidence about asking Jo to join him at his mother's house for the holidays. Now she sat in his living room while he stood in the steam from his shower, trying to convince himself that she would welcome the idea. Instead, the memory kept surfacing of her repeated insistence that there was nothing between them.

When he found himself eyeing the room's 3 foot wide window and pondering escape, his resolve returned. If she shot him down, at least he'd know there was no reason to hope that their relationship could become more than it was. They could both move on.

Somehow, the thought wasn't comforting.

After dressing, Zane checked his email for the flight details. Two seats on a flight from Portland, Oregon to Boston's Logan Airport were booked for 11 am, Christmas morning. His plan had been to spend Christmas Eve with Jo in Eureka. They'd spend Christmas night with his mother before driving along the coast to New York for New Years' Eve. By the end of the trip, he hoped their next step would be clear—rebuild a relationship together or say goodbye. If the latter, he had a vague thought of not returning to Eureka at all.

For the first time since he'd come to the little town, leaving for good wasn't an appealing idea.

With a click, he shut down his PDA and headed for the living room. Jo was on the couch, wineglass in hand and feet tucked beneath her. He returned her smile but continued on to the kitchen to grab a beer. Zane rarely drank, but this suddenly seemed like an excellent time to indulge.

"So," Jo's voice came from the kitchen door. "Do you want to start with why you were in my house today, or work backwards from when you went through my front window?"

Forcing a grin onto his face, Zane turned. "I was naked when the fur came off today. I think you can work backwards from that little fact to figure out why I was there this morning."

Jo frowned. "Let me see if I have this straight. You broke into my house, stripped and decided to wait for me to come home—whenever that might be. And you expected I'd respond by jumping into bed with you rather than kicking your ass to the curb. Is that it?"

It was Zane's turn to frown, but he didn't answer. As brilliant as he was, he suspected his mouth sometimes forgot to check in with his brain before speaking. This may have been one of those times—the conversation wasn't going anywhere near the direction he'd intended.

"Sorry, don't buy it," Jo continued. "Is this any closer? You came by this morning—for reasons unknown—and found I'd left for work early. Rather than leave, you broke in—again, for reasons unknown. Before you could do whatever it was you came to do, we all got animated. Sound about right?"

Zane shook his head. "I didn't have to break in. You set your locks to respond to my voice. Which, by the way, raises another question—why would you do that for a guy you didn't want in your house?"

Jo flushed. "Busted," Zane said. "_Shut up,_" he told himself.

She ignored him. "With the locks open, the shielding was down. So I'm guessing you got turned into Rin Tin Tin after you were in the house. And—you really _are _crazy—that was _after_ you'd gotten naked. So far, so good?"

"Rin Tin Tin was a German Shepherd. _I _was a Husky," he shot back.

"Point taken," she conceded. "Why the hell did you take your clothes off? For all you knew, I wasn't going to be home for hours. Not to mention the whole kicking your ass to the curb possibility."

Zane shrugged. "I had things to share with you." The wattage on his grin turned up. "_Several _things. So I planned on calling you as soon as I got settled. But before I could do that, I found paws where my hands should have been. Hard to dial with those."

"When the animation wave hit, it activated the locks and the shielding?" Jo asked.

Zane nodded. "Seems your voice recognition system doesn't respond to barks. Go figure."

"OK. So we have you locked in my house, running around as a dog." Jo gasped, a look of worry crossing her face. "You are…were…housebroken, yes?"

Zane just glared.

"Moving on. Let's go back to question number two—it's the easy one. Why did you crash through my window?"

Sighing, Zane answered. "I'd been stuck in here all day. I'd started to think you weren't coming home—maybe you'd gone to visit someone for Christmas." He looked away. "Anyway, just after dark, I saw your car come down the street, or what I thought was your car. Turns out it was that woman on your staff driving. When the car didn't stop, I just took off running. I'd gone through the glass before I stopped to think that maybe the window wasn't my best option."

"That super genius IQ of yours on vacation today?" Jo asked.

He shrugged. "I _really _didn't want to be in there until New Years, or whenever you came back. By the time I realized it wasn't you in the car, it had nearly flattened me. You know the rest."

Stepping forward, Jo shook her head. "Not all of it," she said. She gently ran her fingers down the side of his face. "Why were you here in the first place? Fargo told me you had plans to spend Christmas with your mom."

With a deep breath, Zane walked Jo back to the living room. After they sat, he started to speak, eyes on the coffee table.

"Fargo's gotten chatty. He told me that you and I went to my mom's for Christmas a couple of times, before." Jo nodded. "I never had that chance. Not with you, not alone." Zane raised his eyes briefly to hers before dropping his gaze again. "Except for a couple of research trips—with an armed guard on hand-I haven't left Eureka since I got here four years ago."

Jo leaned forward, but Zane didn't look up. "Not surprising, I guess. I was on parole. If I'd still been in prison, I'd never have left the building, much less the town. I know I'm lucky but…" he trailed off, then straightened.

"Anyway. Thanks to the pardon, and you, I can go home. See my mom. It's been too long. I didn't want her coming by the prison. Bad enough she had to watch me screw up my life bouncing between the Ivy League and jail without having to see me in there. And it's been hard for her to get out here."

"Zane," Jo breathed, reaching for his hand. He let her take it before pushing a printed itinerary toward her.

"I need to see her. But I figured if I was really lucky, I'd get to spend this Christmas with the _two_ women I care most about." Jo dropped his hand and picked up the paper. She scanned it and looked at Zane.

"The naked thing was my back-up plan." When she didn't say anything, he nodded. "Or not."

He started to stand until Jo grabbed his arm. "Not much time," she said. He raised his eyebrows questioningly. "2 am now, flight's at 11." She stood.

"It's Christmas, so I don't want to choose. That means we have to use our time efficiently." When Zane didn't move, she explained patiently. "I'll take both options, please." Pulling him with her, she headed to the bedroom. "A week with you _and_ the back-up plan."

"Really?" asked Zane, looking slightly stunned at the rapid turn in the conversation.

Looking back at him, Jo grinned. "Huskies are known for their endurance, right? Let's test that."

He laughed, relief washing across his face. "Knew it. This is going to be the best Christmas _ever_," he answered. There was barely time for him to pull the door closed behind them.

Outside the living room window, a man nodded and smiled in satisfaction. As he strolled to the street, his shadow, cast by a nearby streetlight, seemed curiously round. A team of sled dogs awaited, bells jingling on their collars. He ran a hand over the nearest dog before jumping into the sled behind them. "Always liked Huskies," he chuckled.

Looking back toward Zane's home, he whispered. "And to all a good night." A light snow began to fall as the sled pulled away.


End file.
